MLS gets Visa, Dick’s in the game

If soccer sponsorship sales
counted like goals, Major League Soccer would be up 3-1 to start the season.

Burger King is in talks to return for 2007
in the quick-service restaurant category.

Soccer United Marketing has
netted MLS two new corporate partners, Visa and Dick’s Sporting Goods, and is
nearing a renewal with Burger King.

RadioShack, a partner since
2003, is the only sponsor to drop its support of the league. The move follows a
series of layoffs and store closures last year.

Financial terms of the new
deals were not available, but the additions and subtractions have MLS up 20
percent in sponsorship revenue compared with this time last year, according to
Kathy Carter, SUM’s vice president.

The deals are the first of
a new structure for MLS, in which corporate partners receive league rights but
do not get exclusive category rights with each team, as partners have in the
past. Also absent are media rights because those are now owned by league
broadcast partners ESPN, Fox Soccer Channel, Univision and HDNet.

Instead, the partners
receive intellectual property rights, player rights, hospitality and some local
marketing rights.

Visa’s new partnership
makes it the official payment services provider of MLS and other SUM
properties, including the U.S. Soccer Federation, Mexican national team and
Interliga, a Mexican club team tournament.

The deal came together near
the end of 2006 and was believed to be a domestic investment in soccer to
support its broader, international sponsorship of the World Cup. Visa had been
awarded those rights by FIFA from 2007-14 but lost a court battle to
MasterCard, the former World Cup partner, and had to give up that partnership.

Visa declined to comment on
its new deal with MLS, but Carter said the company will offer pre-sale
advantages for MLS events, including the All-Star Game and MLS Cup. GMR handles
Visa’s activation.

SUM also is developing
Hispanic platforms for the company, Carter said, adding that the card company
will activate around Futbolito, a 4-on-4 Hispanic soccer tournament, with gift
programs that will be handed out on-site.

Dick’s Sporting Goods’
partnership is the culmination of a large investment in U.S. soccer that began
last year when it bought the naming rights to the Colorado Rapids’ new stadium
for the next 20 years. Since then, it has added the rights to be the halftime
sponsor of ESPN’s “MLS Primetime Thursday.”

As the official sporting
goods retailer, Dick’s will offer MLS merchandise in stores in certain markets,
especially around major events. Dick’s began such offerings last year in Dallas
during the MLS Cup.

Burger King, which signed a
six-month, seven-figure agreement to become the league’s first official
quick-service restaurant last year, is in negotiations to return in 2007. Last
year, Burger King offered in-store and online promotion of a $100,000
sweepstakes, and also gave away Burger King- and MLS-branded soccer balls and
“Have It Your Way” gift cards valued at $2.

Plans are still in the
works for how Burger King will activate this year.